(Closed) Can anyone provide some basic training on fonts? Lots of help needed!

I found an invitation I love on Etsy, but I don’t love the price. I thought maybe I could make it (or something very similar) myself, even though I have no skills in this area at all, and no fancy software to use. So I used a link I found on weddingbee to identify what the font is (Aphrodite Slim), and I tracked it down on Myfonts.com. Here’s where I get lost. There is a lot of terminology I don’t understand, and I can’t figure out if I need to download more than one font to get the look I want. I read the sticky on fonts, and I’m still just not able to understand all of this. So, I guess here are some specific questions I have

1. What are glyphs? Will I be able to use them if I’m using Word to design my invitations? Are glyphs the same as ligatures?

2. I learned that Aphrodite Slim is a family of 9 fonts. Will I have to purchase more than 1 to get more than just the basic font (I would like some elaborate scrolls/swirls off of some of the letters)? One of the fonts is Aphrodite Slim Pro… how can I tell what I’ll get with the Pro? The list under the name includes OpenType Contextual and OpenType Swash, which are two of the fonts that have some of those swirls – can I assume I get those when I purchase the Pro? Or, do I have to separately buy each font I want? Here is the look I’m going for:

3. What is the difference between Webfont and Desktop?

4. What is the difference between Open Type and True Type?

5. I’ve been looking for similar fonts, just in case Aphrodite Slim gets too expensive, and I find that some of them are pixel-y when I use them in Word and print to PDF. Others are crystal clear. Examples – Champignon is showing up a little pixel-y when I zoom in to 800% in PDF, but Respective is not at all at the same zoom level. Is there a way to avoid the that pixel-y effect? Or, will this not really matter when I have the invitations printed?

Wow! Lots of questions. My advice would be to ask someone who is a graphic designer for more help on that. I DIY my invites myself and it was a lot of work but worth it. I would suggest using Publisher instead of Word as it is easier to move stuff around, change spacing, etc. Another thing I learned is to take inspiration from the invites you saw but make it your own. If you are focused on making it like the one you saw 110% you will never be satisfied. GL!

3) Web fonts are for web designers. It’s a way to display custom fonts by hosting the fonts so you don’t have to rely on the user’s font collection for them to display correctly. This feature only works on newer browsers. In other words, you don’t need it. 🙂 Desktop for sure.

4) OpenType and TrueType are two different formats. OpenType is newer and has a bigger capacity, thereby containing all those pretty glyphs in one file and avoiding a million different files. In other words, both formats will work fine. One is just newer and more efficient. You might not see all the glyphs though…it depends on the software.

5) Do you have any other options other than Word? I would highly discourage using it as it’s not meant for layout and will be more trouble than it’s worth. GIMP is a free image editing software, or you could get a Photoshop or Illustrator trial for 30 days.